Ecotoxicology:
Study of captive starlings shows the birds fail to orient south for
fall migration when exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls

In recent decades, many common migratory songbirds have declined in
population. Several factors could explain this drop-off, including
habitat loss, climate change, feline predators, and wind turbines. But a
new study finds that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), toxic industrial
pollutants, may share some of the blame by affecting birds’ ability to
migrate (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2015, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b01185).

PCBs were used during the 20th century in products such as electrical
equipment, insulation, paints, and plastics. Some of the compounds are
neurotoxic and can also act as endocrine disruptors. Although
manufacturing of PCBs has been banned in the U.S. and Canada for more
than 35 years, the compounds persist in the environment and
bioaccumulate through food webs.

Many previous studies have shown that endocrine disruptors can interfere with reproduction in birds. But Christy A. Morrissey, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Saskatchewan,
thought that the pollutants might also directly influence migration,
which is partly regulated by hormones. So she and her team raised common
songbirds, European starlings, and monitored how an industrial PCB
mixture called Aroclor 1254 affected their migratory behavior.

In the spring, the researchers fed groups of newly hatched chicks
sunflower oil dosed with 50, 100, or 150 ppm Aroclor 1254—levels similar
to those found in the environment—each day for their first 18 days of
life. Except for the group treated with the highest level of PCBs, which
molted much later than expected, the birds grew normally over four
months, gaining weight and then shedding feathers in preparation for
fall migration.

In September, the researchers changed the birds’ light conditions to
simulate shorter days and spur migration. Then they tested the birds’
preferred migration direction by placing them outside in a standard test
cage: a circular pot covered with a mesh screen. In half-hour trials,
the researchers filmed the birds and tracked the direction in which they
hopped most commonly, which indicates their preferred flight
orientation.

Healthy starlings would normally fly south during fall migration. A
control group fed sunflower oil without PCBs showed this preference,
hopping south-southeast. But the groups treated with the PCB mixture
varied in their orientation: The low-dosage group hopped east, the
intermediate-dosage group hopped east-southeast, and the birds with the
highest dosage hopped all over the place, without any clear orientation.

The results show that birds “can be exposed early in life to these
chemicals that are found widely in the environment, and this can have
long-term effects on their ability to fly in the right direction,”
Morrissey says. If migrating birds don’t make it to their wintering
grounds, they have a much lower chance of surviving and reproducing. She
says starlings fly in a flock during the day, but the effects may be
starker on songbirds that migrate longer distances or fly alone at
night.

Another factor in this issue with the birds may be the the cell tower or wifi radiation. That too is affecting all living creatures on the planet- It saddens me to think of these birds being unable to fly their necessary routes, for survival. Because, I do like birds :)

Hey BuffyI've seen all the articles and so called news stories blaming cats for massive bird deathsHowever..... There is much more to that then meets the eye IMHO

Bird deaths can easily be attributed to- the frigid weather we have had for years now- Hello!! Tens of thousands of them have died from cold, starvation, no access to food- that is water fowl and song birds alikeMass bird deaths have been being reported all over the place, as I have mentioned here at the blog, in multiple posts over more then one year

Then we have the explosion in cell tower wifi radiationThen we have the EDC's

The deal with blaming cats? As I see it? A means to justify cat tags and cat licenses as a way to expropriate more money from people and that's it in a nutshell.

Yep, and never a mention wrt pesticides and their effects on the birds as well! It's nuts.

Yes you are correct about mass bird deaths - starvation, cold, pesticides, cellphones, buildings at night, windmills - the causes are myriad. The only place where cats may enter the picture are in an urban situation and I doubt very much the numbers are what is being touted.

I think you might be right about the added revenue via tags etc, but I really do believe this is misdirection as well - no one wants anyone to connect the dots. Birds eat coated seeds and die. Wasn't there recently a recall of pesticide treated bird seed which led to the death of birds?

Hey BuffyI wrote you an entire response hit publish and it disappearedwhich is very annoying..I missed the pesticides, specifically, though include them as an EDC.

I forgot about the contaminated bird seed! so many well meaning people poisoned the birds they love, thanks to Scotts Miracle Gro Company

http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2012/mar/21/2

'the American company, Scotts Miracle-Gro, violated US federal environmental laws by manufacturing and selling poisoned birdseed for more than two years. The Scotts Miracle-Gro company entered guilty pleas to all charges in U.S. District Court and these guilty pleas were accepted by Judge James Graham on Tuesday, 13 March 2012. Penalties have not yet been determined"Based on that information, one wonders whether the company would ever have voluntarily stopped adding poisons to their birdseed if the EPA had not stepped in to investigate the forged documents and illegal use of pesticides in their lawn care products?

According to court documents, Scotts Miracle-Gro sold more than 73 million packages of these poisoned bird foods nationwide to an unsuspecting public for a period of more than two years. Only 2 million of those 73 million units could be recalled.

Thankfully, I never bought any of this stuff for birds, at least I don't thinks so, because I stick with Sunflower and Niger seeds.

Think about this?

War is .....

...THE CONTINUATION OF STATE POLICY, BY OTHER MEANS

.......A POLITICAL ACTIVITY IN WHICH VIOLENCE IS USED TO BEND THE WILL OF YOUR ENEMY TO THAT OF YOUR OWN

Stop being Manipulated by the Elites

For if you [the rulers] suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves [outlaws] and then punish them.´ - Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

Resource: Ukraine Military Marker

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This blog is a place to not only post information that will never see the light of day on the mainstream media, but, also to present alternative perspectives to main stream media information, that most often presents no background, no context, and never questions the information presented.
The name I chose, Penny for your thoughts, is an invitation to readers to share their relevant thoughts on the varying information.